Promoting local culture and enriching airport experiences through interactive storytelling

Experiences in airports may shape future travel plans and contribute to tourism destination development. However, a chaotic environment and time-consuming procedural routines in airports may result in negative associations towards the host country and its culture. Despite the existence of assistive airport applications, little attention is given to facilitating travelers' engagement with cultural exploration. This paper introduces a concept of interactive personalized storytelling that provides both a cultural learning adventure and connection to local retailing. Our application generates an imaginative Finnish storyline unique to every user to guide them through local shops in the airport. A field evaluation was conducted with 15 travelers of different nationalities. Travelers perceived the interactive storytelling experience as an interesting and unique way to spend waiting time at the airport while increasing cultural exposure. Moreover, we found this method to be effective in persuading travelers to explore local products at the airport. Further, our results give insight to designing storytelling applications for large public places.